Great 2025 Nonfiction That Didnt Make the Best Of Lists

For years, writer and teacher Maggie Smith has given writing advice through her newsletter For Dear Life. Now, she’s taken all of her experience and turned it into the perfect book for writers from all walks of life. Smith’s short essays are ideal for reading in between moments in readers’ busy, creative lives.

Denne Michele Norris, the first openly trans Black editor-in-chief of a major literary publication, cultivated a series of compelling articles by nonbinary writers of color in their work at Electric Literature. Inspired by that series, they’ve now published a book featuring a host of essays by authors such as Akwaeke Emezi, Meredith Talusan, Raquel Willis, and more.

There’s nothing like reading your first Octavia E. Butler novel. Her insight and wisdom shine on every page. So of course, I’ll be savoring this in-depth look at the life of one of America’s best novelists. Author Susana M. Morris delves into Butler’s life and the philosophy behind her writing, providing readers with an inside look at the history and context behind Butler’s work.

In one of my favorite memoirs of the year, Raymond Antrobus tells the story of being diagnosed as Deaf when he was six. He grew up in East London with a Jamaican father and an English mother. Throughout his childhood, he navigated both mainstream and Deaf school systems. Eventually, he finds his place amongst the larger poetry community and shares his experiences with the world.

We all live on Native land, even on Martha’s Vineyard. Aquinnah Wampanoag journalist Joseph Lee has had to watch as his people increasingly struggle to afford living in their ancestral homeland. In Nothing More of This Land, Lee parallels his people’s experience with broader perspectives on what it means to be Indigenous for Native Peoples in the twenty-first century.